A THOUSAND WORDS - Alex Waterhouse-Hayward's blog on pictures, plants, politics and whatever else is on his mind.

Delicate But Hardy

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Monday afternoon could have been much more pleasant than it was. I picked up Lauren at school and then waited for Rebecca at her bus stop. We went home and had some package Ramen which the girls like even though I think that ramen is no better than Kraft Dinner (something I am proud to assert I never tried nor did I ever prepare it for my daughters).

It was on Saturday night that when I took my granddaughters and their mother home I popped into the Malibu’s CD player one of my fave jazz albums, Dizzie Gillespie – Con Alma. Rebecca went on a small critical rage, “Why do you always play the same stuff? If that is the case I can wear my hair straight (I don’t like it) or curly as I please and there is nothing you can do to change my wishes.” I tried to explain that I had not played the CD in at least a year but Rebecca kept protesting and finally her mother said (to my chagrin), “Papi is listening to his music (that made me feel terrible) so shut up.” And that was that.

Yesterday I had a pile of long playing 33 1/3 rpm albums waiting for Rebecca. After our ramen lunch I steered her towards the living room and poured (on a couple of my mother’s very nice tea cups) a lovely Harrod’s Ceylon which I accompanied with extra thick Oreos.

I explained that many of the records and tapes that I really like I cannot listen to in the car because the car has no cassette player. I explained that by now she must know that I have an exclectic taste for classical music, opera, new music and baroque plus I like rock from the point of view of a snob who worked for many years with Les Wiseman who definitely was a snob. I remember him telling me, “If you are going to like heavy metal, make sure it is Motorhead.” It was Wiseman who told me of the wonders of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.

Rebecca sat on the sofa and covered herself with a blanket. This is the music that I played for her:

1. From Elton John’s Don’t Shoot Me I Am the Piano Player: Daniel

2. From The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East: In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Rebecca had no patience to listen to this in its entirety)

3. The Young Canadians: Data Redux

4. John Cale – Animal Justice: Memphis

5. Iggy Pop – Blah – Blah – Blah: Real Wild Child

6. Ian Hunter: Boy

7. Secret V’s- No Life Like It: Waiting for the Drugs to Take Hold

8. Siouxsie and the Banshies –juju: Halloween

9. John Cale – Honi Soit: Dead or Alive

10. Scissors: Wrecked My Car

11. Johnny Thunders – In Cold Blood: Intro, Just Another Girl, Too Much Junkie Business

Dinner was pleasant. I made a meat loaf from The Len Deighton Cook Book and Rosemary made her special scalloped potatoes. For dessert we had sour (not intended to be) strawberries, grapes and melon. I took the girls home.

This morning (after not sleeping too well) we went to the cancer clinic on Broadway to find out the pathology results on Rosemary’s lumpectomy (which was cancerous). In short, with a smile on her face Rosemary’s surgeon and her assistant told us that the cancer was gone and everything was back to normal. We left with relief in our faces.

I had picked some roses which had been blooming (a surprising event in my garden at this stage of Autumn) on Monday to decorate our dinner table. One of them, the almost white on is Rosa ‘Madame Pierre Oger’. It is a delicately coloured Bourbon Rose that one would swear was too delicate to bloom now. The red one is the English Rose Rosa ‘William Shakespeare 2000’ and the two pink ones are the English Rose, Rosa ‘Spirit of Freedom’.

There is no doubt in my mind that my Rosemary is much like the roses in my garden, hardy, long lasting and quite beautiful.